If I had to name my absolutely favorite thing to do, it'd have to
be swimming. I've been attracted to water since I was young. At 2,
I almost drowned after wandering away from a family outing in search of water.
I found it... and they found me just in time. At 5 I was swimming, having
learned in a string of motel pools on a drive from New York to Florida. As
a teenager on Long Island, I lifeguarded, coached, and taught lessons. After
work, we'd head to the beach. Now, look on a map and you'll notice there's
a lot of water around Seattle--the only problem is one can't often swim in
it. The outer limits for lake swimming are April
- October, and that's only if there're some unseasonably warm days and
you don't mind chattering teeth. The Alaska current keeps Puget Sound numbingly
cold, though it is doable to a limited extent.
Recently, I was hopeful and elated going to
Queen
Anne pool a couple of times with Igor; hours are limited, the swim lanes
are overcrowded, but it feels good to be immersed and they have a piping
hot sauna. But in the end it's too chlorine-y and no amount of showering
will spare you that itchy skin feeling afterwards. Still, it was nice to
see this poster; it reminded me of my country club lifeguarding days when
we'd spend hours making signs with scissors, paste, and magic markers in
the not-so-dark ages before computers homogenized expression. :-)